Is Mitt Romney the new Bob Dole?

Many Republican political professionals are worried that Mitt Romney’s public image is now defined by a word never associated with winning presidential campaigns — weakness — and are urging him to take dramatic steps to recast his reputation between now and the fall. The advice, echoed in interviews with numerous influential GOP figures, comes as Romney finds himself tormented by a contradiction: With each passing day of the primary season, he is coming closer and closer to being presidential nominee — and seemingly further and further away from being president.

First of all, let me express my condolences for the loss of your sister. That must have been an extremely difficult time for you and your family.

I was living in Florida when the whole Schiavo episode took place and followed the story pretty closely. If we take a step back in time, no one was sure how Terri ended up in her vegetative state. There were unconfirmed reports that she and Michael Schiavo had had a big fight that resulted in her injuries and there were other reports indicating that she may have had a stroke.

Regardless of how she ended up in her “vegetative state”, she did. Early into her initial treatment, Michael cancelled her rehabilitation. Many doctors and therapists agreed that she could have greatly benefitted from the rehabilitation that Michael denied her. After approximately 5 years in her coma, Michael made the first attempt to have the state of Florida agree to removing her feeding tubes and allow her to die. After about a week with her feeding tubes disconnected, that decision was overturned and her feeding tube was reconnected.

Now we fast forward approximately 10 more years to the events that have everyone blaming Jeb. In the intervening years after his first attempt to have her feeding tube disconnected, Michael went lawyer and judge shopping. He found a lawyer who would file the paperwork and a judge who would steadfastly oversee her state-sanctioned murder. It remains mind-boggling to me that NO ONE holds Judge Greer responsible for what happened to her.

Judge Greer signed the paperwork ordering her feeding tube removed and alowing her to die. Despite the fact that Terri had committed no crime, this “judge” sentenced her to death. Obviously, there was a great outcry as this story made its way out of the state of Florida. First, the state legislature tried to intervene to see if there was anything they could do to save Terri’s life. Unfortunately, under the state constitution, there wasn’t.

That’s when Jeb got involved. He tried reasoning with Michael and the judge to see if they would allow Terri to become a ward of the state. Both Michael and the judge refused. During this time, Terri’s family got involved asking Michael to return custody of Terri to them and allowing them to become her guardians. Again, Michael refused. Across Florida, people asked why didn’t Michael just divorce her and let her family take charge of her care?

Michael not only steadfastly refused, he insisted that he was carrying out her last wishes which were to not be allowed to live using a machine. According to Michael, this was something Terri had told him in a private conversationa a couple of years before the incident that left her in her coma. However, there was nothing in writing to support his claim (which he only brought forward after her feeding tube was removed and more and more people demanded something be done to save her life) and he never brought this up the first time he tried to get her feeding tube disconnected. Michael’s claim was outright rejected by Terri’s family who are Roman Catholic and and they said she would never have made such a request.

As this situation continued to deteriorate, pressure mounted for somebody to do something. This is where Jeb comes in. Jeb decided that he would send members of the state police to the hospital where Terri was slowly dying from starvation and dehydration (a “beautiful” death, we were told by the complicit media) to take charge of her and make her a ward of the state.

At this, Judge Greer countered by saying that he would order the local police to surround the hospital to prevent the state police from carrying out their orders, even at the risk of deadly gunfire. Jeb, horrified at the prospect of two police agencies shooting at each other, reluctantly ordered the state police to stand down and return to Tallahassee.

Approximately 2 - 3 weeks later, Terri finally died. But, the story doesn’t end there. Terri’s family asked Michael to release her body to them so that they could bury her. Again, Michael refused and, instead, had her cremated and her remains interred in a secret location. To this day, her family doesn’[t know where her remains are kept and they are unable to visit her grave.

After Terri’s death, Michael married the girlfriend with whom he had been living for the previous 4 or 5 years and with whom he had 2 children. As soon as her body was disposed of, he and new wife moved out-of-state to an unknown location.

I fail to understand why, in that whole story, everyone blames Jeb for Terri’s death, but not Michael or judge Greer. A year or two later, judge Greer was re-elected and, when that term ended, he retired.

This is the real story and, like everything else, the disingenuous, biased media (DBM) reported the story in a way that bashed the Republican, but not the perpetrators.

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